"All warfare is, to a great extent, asymmetric, as each side seeks to pit its strengths against an opponent’s weaknesses."

--

Lt. Gen. Jonathan Riley, D.S.O.

La Triviata

At the height of the struggle to vindicate
Alfred Dreyfus (c. 1898-1903), the falsely
convicted officer was supported by, among others, the Bourbon, Orleans, and
Bonaparte claimants to the throne of France, as well as the former Empress
Eugenie, Queen Victoria of Great Britain, and even Pope Leo XIII, not to
mention numerous political, literary, and cultural figures from across the
world.

Sir Robert Napier’s 13,000-strong expedition
from the Red Sea to Magdala, in what is now Ethiopia,
during 1867-1868, was accompanied by 14,500 camp followers and 36,000 draught
animals, who provided logistical support.

By the end of World War II approximately 940,000
men had served in Hitler's Waffen-SS, of whom only about 250,000 were actually ethnic
Germans.

In earlier times, in many countries, the wives
of military officers often bore courtesy
titles based on the ranks of their husbands – in France, for example, the wife of a marechal was “Madame Marechale.”

Apparently, during the Republic, when a Roman
general won a battle he thought merited a triumph, he would send the Senate a
special dispatch wrapped in laurel leaves, suggesting that a supply of such
leaves was a standard part of every commander's equipment.

In 1759-1760, at the height of the Seven Years’
War, the Royal Navy assigned 30 captains, 105 lieutenants, 215 petty officers,
and over 1,200 men to Impressment duties, who were supported by a further 1,200
officers and men manning the vessels that transported the “recruits” to the
fleet.

The oldest known manual for the training of war
horses, in this instance to draw chariots, was written around 1345 BC by one
Kikkuli, a Mittanian in the service of King Suppiluliumas I of the Hittites.

On becoming Minister of War to the French
republic in 1793, the brilliant Lazare Carnot cashiered himself from the Army,
so that generals would not have to take orders from a mere captain of
engineers.